By Rabbi Dovid Sapirman, Dean, Ani Maamin Foundation
As we contemplate the story of Chanukah, we must wonder how both then and now, the majority of Jewish people deserted their heritage. Are we not the “stiff-necked nation,” a stubborn people who never give up? Did we not endure the horror of the Crusades and Tach v’Tat with virtually no one choosing Christianity over death?
And the same can be asked of other times that masses of Jews defected from the Torah. What caused German Jews to give up their Judaism, Russian Jews to forsake their devotion to Hashem, in exchange for the “enlightenment” of Haskalah? Three million Jews succumbed to Communism with hardly a fight!
Of course, there were many historical factors involved. Greek and German culture were very attractive, each in their own way. Russian society was less so, but the glittering promises of Haskalah and Communism were seductive.
But one factor is often overlooked in studying these waves of historical defection. Too often, traitors from among klal Yisrael enlist the government in an effort to force their brethren to join them.
Originally, the Jews who coveted Greek culture were a minority. But with the help of their Egyptian, and eventually Syrian Greek, overlords, they forced the rest of the people to break the Torah.
In Germany, the original defectors were small in number, but had the backing of the government and police to enforce their twisted goals. They closed all Torah schools, sealed up mikvaos, made Torah study against the law—all punishable with severe fines and expulsion.
In Russia, Haskalah activists convinced the Czar’s government to back their program, and were allowed to print periodicals besmirching the Rabbinate, Jewish customs, and even the Torah itself, with no such permission granted to the camp of Torah-loyal Jews. The government-imposed silence of the rabbanim was interpreted as a confession. Russian Jewish youth were exposed to this propaganda constantly, from 1840 until the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Following the Revolution, the new Communist government instituted a policy of enforced atheism. They appointed a committee of ferociously anti-religious Jews to staff the “Jewish” sector of the Communist party, the Yevsektzia. This committee’s job was to stamp out Judaism in Russia—and they were tragically successful.
May Hashem help us against all our enemies and the enemies of Torah, as He did “in those days, in these times."
